Snowpack is heading into its third day here in the Lowcountry, with many roads still a little on the sketchy side and black ice being a concern once again overnight Thursday into Friday morning. It’s kept us on the chilly side, too: the high today hit 40° at the airport, while the high of 38° at downtown Charleston was a record cold high temperature for January 23. We’re already back into the 20s as of this writing (8:45 PM-ish) with temperatures expected to fall into the low 20s given much less cloud cover than last night and the continued snowpack. Winds a little more out of the west should kick in on Friday, though, and we should see highs peak in the mid-40s along with more sunshine than we saw Thursday. Still, melting during the day Friday should once again contribute to a black ice threat overnight into Saturday morning, so keep that in mind if you head out.

With plenty of snowpack still on the ground, expect a very, very cold night that should set daily records on Thursday morning as lows could fall to as low as 15°. Mix in the persistent northerly wind and wind chills may fall into the single digits. If you’re headed outside tomorrow morning, be bundling up in lots of layers and be very careful for re-frozen ice on steps, sidewalks, and roads.

Additional cloud cover on Thursday isn’t gonna do us a lot of good in the melting department; highs should once again only peak in the upper 30s with mostly cloudy skies generally expected. Wind will remain a bit of a factor, and it’ll feel like the 20s for much of the daytime period.

Getting into Thursday night, I’d expect another round of refreezing and black ice concerns. If you don’t have to travel, it’s probably best to stay hunkered in one more day.

Precipitation has ended across the Lowcountry after an eventful night of winter weather. Snow totals are coming in and a more complete analysis will be doable later today. For now, though, it’s quite cold, and will stay that way for much of the day with so much sleet/snow cover. Cloud cover will clear out, which may be the only thing that gets us back above freezing this afternoon for a brief period. Anything that melts will likely re-freeze, though, promoting a black ice risk across the area especially on bridges and overpasses. (We have a few days of this ahead, too.) If you don’t have to travel, don’t — quite a few roads, including the Ravenel Bridge, Ashley River bridges, and the Northbridge are closed to traffic. Monitor local media for updates on roads throughout the day — and try to have a little fun, too!